On 12 September 2017, an international police operation
supported by Europol has resulted in 50 house searches and the arrest of
5 suspects.
The investigation, led by the German Federal Police and
Criminal Investigations Department of Berlin, in close cooperation with
the Portuguese Immigration and Borders Service / SEF, was initiated in
October 2016 on the suspicion of facilitation of illegal immigration via
marriages of convenience, so-called sham marriages.
The investigators identified a Nigerian-led criminal
network which was engaged in the facilitation of these sham marriages
through the provision of false information and documentation to marriage
registrars, thus exploiting the asylum and immigration system. These
criminal elements were gleaning huge profits by organising EU residency
status for Nigerian nationals through these marriages of convenience.
The action in Germany resulted in the seizure of lots of
passports, and documents. A total of 7 arrest warrants were issued,
alongside a freezing order by the Berlin Court of Justice of a value of
EUR 530 000 out of which EUR 309.950 could have been seized already
Simultaneously, the Portuguese Immigration and Borders
Service / SEF executed house searches in Lisbon, on the occasion of
which fraudulent certificates, passports and EU residence permits were
seized.
Europol’s Migrant Smuggling Centre was involved in this
investigation from the onset, providing tailored analytical support and
co-ordinating the cooperation between both EU Member States.
During the action days, two Europol officers were deployed
to Germany and Portugal for on-the-spot support to the national
investigators, including real-time data exchange and cross-checks
against Europol databases.
No comments:
Post a Comment